Elite Dangerous is the Largest Empty Sandbox Ever Made

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Cosmo

Cosmo
babelfisch said:
No, Elite Dangerous has currently 65k players on Steam (usually that number is around 80-100k, it goes up and down) + 100-200k on the other platforms.

Anyway, that's why we are seeing continous updates, improvements and expansions. Not sure what you are trying to tell me.
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False, right now 2,662 are In-Game via steam. https://steamcommunity.com/app/359320

lokvette said:
I was just reading the reddit post that quote was taken from, and to be fair to the OP on reddit he does bring up some fair points.

Popped over here to check new posts saw this thread and well you know what comes next, OP lights a fire, and it gets peed on by the normal "there is nothing wrong brigade" Somtimes it really does feel like the bilnd leading the blind around here.
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Yep, understandably fans of ED are defensive.

Frontier has to realize that they need to put much more effort on making the sandbox deep which should be part of the core improvements in 2018. I wish the best for ED, but I'm skeptical of the game designers. For example their lack of bothering to improve multicrew, the repetitive CGs and slow unveiling of the Thargoids in 2.4 is worrisome.
 
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Afterglow [SecB]

Afterglow [SecB]
Cosmo said:
Obsidian Ant's latest video has one of the best comments ever about Elite Dangerous:

Fdev built one of the largest sandbox's in video game history.. then? when it came time to put sand into it? They just built some kiddie theme park rides that offer the same experience over and over. Thargoids are just another theme park. You get on the ride.. see everything there is.. Than there is nothing left but to get on that ride again..... It makes sense for World of Warcraft.. you pay a monthly subscription and Blizzard has 200-300 full time developers building new rides.. In Elite? It wastes limited developer time.. hurts the game.. and ultimately doesn't add any sand to the box.

If there isn't Sand put in the box for Players to actually mold, change and influence themselves.. In an innovative and bold way.. This game will just fall off into obscurity.

It's the saddest part about Elite when you understand how the game works. It's the largest empty sandbox ever made that is full of kiddie rides with no depth or imagination.. In a Game "Galaxy" concept built and based on the idea of depth and imagination. Quite a paradox? Just give players the "Sand" That is all the Developers should be spending their time on. Instead you get CQC, Multicrew, Thargoids, CG's. Placing stations instead of letting players build them.... It's madness.

Link to the subreddit.

P.S. the comment was made by someone else below the video.
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I agree with that. I have the impression that it does not go on with elite. this is probably due to the more lucrative development of planet coaster and this dinosaur thing. these new games probably offer more space for microtransactions and premium content. we will see it next year what is behind it.
 

AbsinthSvK

AbsinthSvK
Cosmo said:
Fdev built one of the largest sandbox's in video game history.. then? when it came time to put sand into it?
.
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When they put more effort to PvP and territory clan fights, that will change this status to "legendary game". PvP interaction is 1000% more repeatable/fun then some npc missions.

Now? Yes sandbox without sand. But look at for example dayz, its sandbox without sand too but "fun" aspect is PvP.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Cosmo said:
Right now 2,662 are In-Game via steam. If you include the non-steam and console players it's maybe 6,000 (I think less than that).

Eve Online has: 41,736 (2007-11-06 07:28:14)
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Ugh... why do people do this?

Chaos Reborn currently has 10 players playing. Does that mean its a bad game? Sorry, but i like it. And its a newer game than ED.

Or let's turn it around. EvE has only 41k??? Haha, EvE must be crap because PUBG has 1,654,529 players online at this moment in time.

Stats are great, you can prove anything and nothing with them.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
lokvette said:
I was just reading the reddit post that quote was taken from, and to be fair to the OP on reddit he does bring up some fair points.

Popped over here to check new posts saw this thread and well you know what comes next, OP lights a fire, and it gets peed on by the normal "there is nothing wrong brigade" Somtimes it really does feel like the bilnd leading the blind around here.

Its almost become comical, look mummy I can slam somone on the internet. Anyway there was an intresting thread around here somwhere I wanted to check so best go and do that.
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Says the person who admits they don't play the game.

Wow, dangerous is toxic today - shame the mods don't just merge all the trolls threads to make way for something novel.
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
babelfisch said:
Not false, I am talking about the active players, not concurrent players, which is the same number I used to compare the other games in my earlier post.
http://steamspy.com/app/359320
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The active player base is what truly counts and that's what I was referring to. The far majority of players have quit playing ED.

Eve Online puts ED to shame as far as the active player population is concerned. Eve also prob has a lot more player accounts than 3 million.

AbsinthSvK said:
When they put more effort to PvP and territory clan fights, that will change this status to "legendary game". PvP interaction is 1000% more repeatable/fun then some npc missions.

Now? Yes sandbox without sand. But look at for example dayz, its sandbox without sand too but "fun" aspect is PvP.
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PVP is a lot more interesting when large groups of players can organize battles and conquer things. The Fleet Carrier and Squadron mechanics should add that. That increases player agency and make it more player-driven thus deepen the sandbox. They should also add PVE sandbox features.

Agony_Aunt said:
Or let's turn it around. EvE has only 41k??? Haha, EvE must be crap because PUBG has 1,654,529 players online at this moment in time.

Stats are great, you can prove anything and nothing with them.
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Here's some stats for you:

CCP Financial Statements for 2016 - a review

Revenues are up 31% to a new record high of $86m, pre tax earnings are up 30% to a new record high of $24.6m, post tax earnings are up 4% to a new record high of $21m (the lower % post tax earnings rise than revenues rise is because CCP is back to paying tax again). Balance sheet is strong: $46m of Cash less $21m of Borrowings; and the Development Costs look prudent. CCP is generating cash and using it to pay down the debt.

http://marketsforisk.blogspot.com/2017/05/ccp-financial-statements-for-2016-review.html

The bigger active player base of Eve translates to $86 million in revenue ($21 million post-tax earnings) for 2016. Eve has paid subscription and Free-to-play options. Most people who bought ED don't want to pay a monthly fee, because the game just isn't engaging, deep enough. Elite Dangerous doesn't come close to that at all.
 
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[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
AbsinthSvK said:
When they put more effort to PvP and territory clan fights, that will change this status to "legendary game". PvP interaction is 1000% more repeatable/fun then some npc missions.

Now? Yes sandbox without sand. But look at for example dayz, its sandbox without sand too but "fun" aspect is PvP.
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imo focussing on pvp killed starwars battlefront (the original games were single player with multiplayer bolt on extras, it has ruined COD (another franchise built around single player with bolt on MP which has systematically whittled away at the "best" imo parts (for me, i know many are ok with simple arena shooters) and it will ruin ED as well. Yes i agree there is still much work to do, but not every game has to be some PvP arena shooter war game.

just look at the games premise, we are all ALREADY in 1 giant player guild, called the Pilots Federation and there is a whole lore built around why we DONT just willy nilly blow each other up. (because the pilots federation foots the bill).
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
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WorldsGreatestForumDad

Banned
WorldsGreatestForumDad
AbsinthSvK said:
When they put more effort to PvP and territory clan fights, that will change this status to "legendary game". PvP interaction is 1000% more repeatable/fun then some npc missions.

Now? Yes sandbox without sand. But look at for example dayz, its sandbox without sand too but "fun" aspect is PvP.
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Couldnt agree more. If they would just fix powerplay to start. The the guilds,clans, fleets whatever you want to call them would work out later too. Right now is the time to take the chance and show it will work.

Otherwise, they can add all the fancy new stuff. But we will still be at square 1.
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as others.

Then I realize I'm not, because I treat sandbox games like sandboxes, and bring my own toys to the sandbox to play with. Sometimes I play with others, who have also brought their own toys to the sandbox as well. But I never mistake sand for a toy. You can't even build a decent sandcastle out of it, unless you think to bring water, buckets, and a decent sharp stick to sculpt the fine details.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Cosmo said:
. The Fleet Carrier and Squadron mechanics should add. That increases player agency and make it more player-driven thus deepen the sandbox. They should also add PVE sandbox features.
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assuming you really mean the last sentence and not just a throw away comment then i think that is fair, so long as there are npc equivalents to all that MP stuff then it would be cool.

it would however mean many of us would never go into open, and just stick with our npc guilds with a few mates but i am fine with that, and possibly could make everyone happy
 

WorldsGreatestForumDad

Banned
WorldsGreatestForumDad
Agony_Aunt said:
Ugh... why do people do this?

Chaos Reborn currently has 10 players playing. Does that mean its a bad game? Sorry, but i like it. And its a newer game than ED.

Or let's turn it around. EvE has only 41k??? Haha, EvE must be crap because PUBG has 1,654,529 players online at this moment in time.

Stats are great, you can prove anything and nothing with them.
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It proves people arent interested, or have lost interest in a game. PubG is a broken game doing better than this broken game. My dad can beat up your dad.

For real though, twitch stats, steam stats are a big deal here.

Look at the top of twitch, whats the one thing they all have in common. COMPETITION. This game has NONE, none thats meaningful anyways.

As a matter of fact the community has gone out of their way to create their own forms of competition because of the failing features of this game,

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/7eztt3/introducing_the_pvp_hub/

Could that maybe be the multiplayer features of this game, when it comes to objectives is unbalanced? Maybe its due to I dunno, certain game modes ruining the multiplayer experience?

Oh boy who would have thought? Once again the root of all the problems comes back to one song. I can hear it now...
 

-VR- Max Factor

-VR- Max Factor
Cosmo said:
Obsidian Ant's latest video has one of the best comments ever about Elite Dangerous:

Fdev built one of the largest sandbox's in video game history.. then? when it came time to put sand into it? They just built some kiddie theme park rides that offer the same experience over and over. Thargoids are just another theme park. You get on the ride.. see everything there is.. Than there is nothing left but to get on that ride again..... It makes sense for World of Warcraft.. you pay a monthly subscription and Blizzard has 200-300 full time developers building new rides.. In Elite? It wastes limited developer time.. hurts the game.. and ultimately doesn't add any sand to the box.
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No, that is not what WoW does. It has 300-400 employess to create the same rides with a different rapper on them. That is the same with all MMORPG's out there.
Kiddie rides you say, well in a sandbox you create the rides, so if all you play are kiddie rides, thats on you fella.


Cosmo said:
If there isn't Sand put in the box for Players to actually mold, change and influence themselves.. In an innovative and bold way.. This game will just fall off into obscurity.
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There is already enough sand to keep me going for probably another couple of years, and they are adding a whole load more next year.

A sandbox is a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game emphasizes roaming and allows a gamer to select tasks.

This is pretty much what we have in ED. Sure we can't build stations, but it isn't a station bulding sandbox game. Elite is a sandbox game where you choose to do whatever you want and your actions changes/molds the BGS. Could it hgave more, sure it can, but that is the same as all games out there.

Cosmo said:
It's the saddest part about Elite when you understand how the game works. It's the largest empty sandbox ever made that is full of kiddie rides with no depth or imagination.. In a Game "Galaxy" concept built and based on the idea of depth and imagination. Quite a paradox? Just give players the "Sand" That is all the Developers should be spending their time on. Instead you get CQC, Multicrew, Thargoids, CG's. Placing stations instead of letting players build them.... It's madness.

P.S. the comment was made by someone else below the video.
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I know a decent amount about the BGS, but it has changed a bit since I was last heavily invested in it. Now I am not playing the BGS, gameplay comes to me via the BGS, instead of having the BGS as the game itself. I have far more fun playing that way. There is a reasonable amount of sand already, could there be more, sure, and I hope it gets more next year and the year after etc.
 

Cosmo

Cosmo
Robert Maynard said:
.... and what proportion of PC players actually use Steam to launch the game?

Not forgetting that console players are not reflected in any way by Steam stats.

If steamcharts can be used for anything, they'd suggest that E: D has had more concurrent players than EvE (on Steam, of course) for some time: http://steamcharts.com/cmp/8500,359320#3m
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I commented earlier already that total amount of active players (playing at the same time) is probably about 6,000 tops. That's a very positive outlook btw. Eve Online outshines that, not just with amount of active players also with much bigger annual revenues and profit that CCP makes.
 
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